(Closed) Anyone with experience in do-it-yourself receptions?

I got engaged a couple of weeks ago and due to future travel/work commitments we are leaning towards having our wedding late next year.

We’ve decided on a cocktail-style reception – we’re both pretty laid back and our ceremony will most likely be a garden wedding, so we want to keep a relaxed feel. We also want everyone to be able to mingle and not stress about table arrangements (we have some family members who don’t get along).

Looking into venues near me that do cocktail-style catering, it seems ridiculously expensive ($50/person for 10 canapes, not including room hire or drinks which are prohibitively priced!). For that price, we could hire an awesome ballroom, provide deluxe drinks, and hire a catering/waitressing company to cook/serve everything.

I’m worried though, that this might be too much stress. Both sets of parents and grandmothers would be constantly worrying about the food, wanting to check on everything, not able to enjoy themselves.

My cousin’s just got married a 2 weeks ago. If you don’t have a specific church in mind. I would try to look for a church that has its own banquet hall. She had her in the Church’s flower garden that the Ladies Guild takes care of. It was the most beautiful wedding I have ever been too.

My cousin had never attended this church before she became engaged. After she got her ring she called the church the next day and told the Pastor that she thought the garden was b/c she always pasted it on the way to work and that she would love to have her wedding there.

The Ladies Guild was so flattered that the said the would be happy for her to be the very first bride to ever get married in their garden, for Free too. The Ladies Guild at the Church handled the decorations and all of her flowers for the tables and table cloths. She choose how she wanted them arranged and they did the rest.

My cousin used the local deli in at our local store she order 1 large hot platers of food. She had everything on her menu and I do mean everything. She had Chicken, Steak, shrimp and lobster etc. She had to order the food 3 weeks before her wedding. And the Ladies Guild even made extra side dishes for her reception.

The Ladies Guild at her Church Volunteered to delivered her food and set it up for her and served it to all of the guests for her as their wedding present. The food was wonderful. She spent 600 on food for 178 not including the cake.

I guess what I am trying to say is that there are other people that would be willing to help you out on your big day.

Both Sets of Parents tried to donate money to the Church and the Ladies Guild and they refused to take a dime.

I’m DIYing my reception. I booked a venue that allows us to self-cater and we are doing just a dessert reception afterwards. (We’re having a garden ceremony, too!) My mom, sisters, and I will make most of the food the day before, possibly along with my grandma and some aunts. We haven’t yet worked out who will be in charge of keeping the food platters stocked, but I’ve got some teenage siblings who have reasonable reliable and responsible friends and I’m hoping I can offer a few of them $20 or $30 to be in charge of food and drinks for an afternoon.

@Cabbagefairy: I think usually the reson is less to do with making money and more to do with liscencing. You need certain liscences to allow food prep on your facility, and it’s cheaper to only get in house staff on the liscence than it is to allow for outside sources to be covered. Insurance and liscencing thing 90% of the time (at least in CA, my sister’s a caterer here) Also, it’s 1 am and I don’t think I’m spelling liscencing correctly, but cba to google it lol

@seree: That was the same issue we had. We got permission from our church to bring our own food and although we haven’t decided exactly what we’re doing yet, we decided on no booze (booze is the most expensive part if you’re not doing a formal sit down affair) and mostly finger foods. We’ll probably do some kind of sandwich table, maybe some different salads, and maybe a dessert table. We’re only having 25 people though including me and FI and everything we’ll make can be done a day ahead of time. I’m doing all the food myself (knowing my family people will probably drop by unannounced to help though lol) so being able to do everything the day before is a must, I don’t want to spend my wedding day worrying about food and there was just no way I was going to shell out the money for a caterer. 😉